Olympic Champions - Los Angeles 1984 AA - Mary Lou Retton

absolutely. short, stocky, poor splits, no artistry

Shawn Johnson is the new Mary Lou!

I found Retton much stronger on vault. Szabo normally should be stronger on bars but she fell on bars in team finals and the scores carried over then. Beam Szabo was obviously stronger. Floor they were close but I just enjoyed Retton more, Szabo was good but boring on floor. I think Mary Lou definitely deserved to win. Szabo with a fall on bars in team optionals should not be able to beat a gymnast like Mary Lou hitting totally. She is definitely not that much better.

Whatever, people like you who can't deal with Mary Lou winning and can't stop eating sour grapes can't stop whining about something that happened over 20 years ago! Get over it, cry baby, nothing generous about it, she won with an international panel scoring the event, no bias. Szabo wasn't as strong in some events, same as Mary Lou, she only won by a slim margin but on that day she was the best. Now die, please and STFU!

Sure perfection on vault but what about the other events. There is nothing perfect or beautiful about Mary Lou's bars and beam to put it mildly.

I completely agree with you! I see that people who can't deal with the truth resort to insults. Truth hurts!

Ecaterina Szabo was the AA champion. If the Soviets and Maxi Gnauck had been there it would have been very difficult to get away with the generous scoring the Americans got.

Mary Lou Retton's scores were inflated. There is no debating that.

Ecaterina Szabo was perceptive and realistic enough to realize that the raucous crowd and questionable judging did not bode well for her. The odds were stacked against her and Bela was playing the big fool for the media doing PR work for his gym to generate business.

Szabo made mistakes in this competition but was still the AA champion. MLR's form and artistry were conveniently overlooked.

It really seems interesting that gymnastics back then appears to focus more on the "dance" aspect of it than today; there's more of a focus now on agility and a tougher kind of grace than previously.

Interesting commentary, too -- it's more kid-friendly, less gossipy (ish) and critical. Curious as to why...

Are you saying there was some home town bias from the judges? Perish the thought!

i was also thinking that.. the level of difficulty just doesn't seem the same.

the soviet union didn't compete in 84.....i'm sure that had something to do with it as well

I think Retton wasn't great on the beam, and overall at the time there were much better Gymnasts. I feel her winning gold was blown out of proportion.

have u ever competed on vault at the olympic level??... its not as easy as it may seem

the vault is sooo easy

Okay so I meant the first floor hahaha